Book of Mormon Translations

by Hugh G. Stocks

Book of Mormon translations. Photo courtesy of Travis S.

After the Prophet Joseph Smith's original translation of the Book of Mormon from the
gold plates into English in 1829 and the return of those plates to the angel Moroni, no
translations from English into other languages appeared until the 1850s. During the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Church produced translations of the Book of
Mormon irregularly, often in groups of languages, and at widely separated intervals.
However, in the 1970s and later, translations from the English text of the Book of Mormon
became systematic and frequent.

Making the Book of Mormon and other standard works available in many languages is
foreshadowed by the divine injunction "that every man shall hear the fulness of the
gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language" (D&C 90:11). As missions were
opened on the continent of Europe in 1850 and 1851, Church leaders in many of the newly
opened missions mounted simultaneous translation efforts. The Danish edition (1851),
produced by Erastus Snow for the Scandinavian Mission from a Danish translation by Peter
Olsen Hansen, was the first printed (see Scandinavia, the Church in). At the same time,
John Taylor supervised translations into French by Curtis E. Bolton and German by George
P. Dykes, while Lorenzo Snow was working on the Italian edition and John Davis on a Welsh
one. All of these appeared in 1852, and culminated with George Q. Cannon's translation of
the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian in 1855. No further translations were published for
twenty years.

In 1875 Meliton G. Trejo and Daniel W. Jones produced the first translation of
selections from the Book of Mormon into Spanish. This ninety-six-page document, comprising
only the books of 1 and 2 Nephi, Omni, 3 Nephi, and Mormon, was the first partial
translation and one of only two partial printings of the Book of Mormon in book form at
the time. (The other was the publication of 1 Nephi-Words of Mormon in the Deseret
alphabet.) Trejo and James Z. Stewart completed a translation of the entire book into
Spanish in 1886. The remainder of the nineteenth century produced three further
translations: Swedish (1878), Maori (1889), and Dutch (1890). Sixteen more, including the
first in Asian languages and several in South Pacific tongues, appeared between 1903 and
1977.

Copy of the Book of Mormon Thai translation. Photo courtesy of Fire Monkey Fish

In 1971, in support of an expanding missionary program, the Church organized a
Translation Services Department to direct a systematic program of
scripture translation. They began with the production of a large number of translations of
Selections from the Book of Mormon, designed to place selected chapters in the hands of
missionaries, general readers, and members as quickly as possible and to train
translators. The Selections volume is being progressively replaced by full translations. After 1998 the Church stopped translating Selections from the Book of Mormon; each new approved translation will now be a full edition. Currently there are 30 editions of Selections from the Book of Mormon.

As of
2008, almost 175 years after Joseph Smith first published the book in English, 74 full editions of the Book of Mormon are now in print. Since its initial printing in 1830, it is estimated that more than 120 million copies of the Book of Mormon have been distributed, with millions more to be printed in the future.

One of the most recent translations of the Book of Mormon is in Slovenian. Additional languages are currently being produced, along with some Selections being expanded to full translations of the Book of Mormon.

The Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles considers recommendations from Area Presidencies for new translations of the Book of Mormon. Before the Book of Mormon is translated, Gospel Fundamentals and other basic doctrinal items such as the Articles of Faith are translated (if they haven't been already) in order to establish standard terminology. Translation work for the Book of Mormon is carried out by worthy, qualified members who are assigned specifically to the task.

Full Editions of the Book of Mormon:

Afrikaans

Albanian

American Sign

Amharic

Arabic

Armenian East

Aymara

Bislama

Bulgarian

Cambodian

Catalan

Cebuano

Chinese

Chinese Simplified Characters

Croatian

Czech

Danish

Dutch

English

Estonian

Fante

Fijian

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Haitian

Hawaiian

Hindi

Hmong

Hungarian

Icelandic

Igbo

Ilokano

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese

Kekchi

Kiribati

Korean

Latvian

Lingala

Lithuanian

Malagasy

Maori

Marshallese

Mongolian

Neomelanesian

Norwegian

Pangasinan

Polish

Portuguese

Rarotongan

Romanian

Russian

Samoan

Shona

Slovenian

Spanish

Swahili

Swedish

Tagalog

Tahitian

Telugu

Thai

Tongan

Tswana

Turkish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Welsh

Xhosa

Yapese

Zulu

Selections from the Book of Mormon:

Armenian Western

Bengali

Bikolano

Cakchiquel

Chamorro

Efik

Guarani

Hiligaynon

Kisii

Kuna

Laotian

Mam

Maya

Navajo

Niuean

Palauan

Pampango

Papiamento

Persian

Pohnpeian

Quechua--Bolivia

Quechua--Peru

Quiche

Quichua--Ecuador

Sinhala

Tamil

Trukese

Tzotzil

Urdu

Waray

Retranslations of early editions began in 1952 with the second translation into
Spanish. Subsequently, the Japanese, Italian, and German editions were retranslated; other
retranslations appeared as Selections from 1980 on. With the issuance of the 1981 English
edition of the Book of Mormon (see Book of Mormon Editions),
the Church Translation Department began systematically reviewing all existing
translations, setting priorities for retranslation, and producing new editions more in
conformity with the English format.